14 SPRING FLOWERS. 



centre of the Daisy flower-head. The manner in which the 

 poet Burns apostrophized this " modest crimson-tipped flower/* 

 while following the plough, and lamenting over the destruc- 

 tion he was causing it and could not avoid, is singularly pa- 

 thetic — " the share upturns thy bed, and low thou lies." 



Of the subdivision of Monopetals in which the stamens are 

 distinct from the corolla, examples will be found in the spring- 

 blooming Vaccinium or Whortleberry family. 



The division in which the corolla is hypogynous, bearing 

 the stamens : in other words, in which the flowers are peri- 

 gynous, is well illustrated by the Primrose, already adverted 

 to in our opening page. Another illustration is afforded by 

 the Lesser Periwinkle."^ one of the Apocynaceous or Dog- 

 bane family, found occasionally in hedges and woody banks, 

 and commencing to flower in spring — ay, sometimes very 

 early in the year. This is a perennial, with long trailing stems, 

 clothed with opposite ovate-oblong leaves, and producing also 

 short erect flowering-branches, which bear solitary axillary 

 flowers ; these have a free calyx with five narrow deep divi- 

 sions; a monopetalous corolla, in which the tube is almost 

 campanulate, and the limb consists of five flat spreading seg- 

 ments, having a lateral twist; five stamens enclosed in the 

 tube of the corolla; and two ovaries, distinct at the base, but 

 connected at top by a single style, terminating in an oblong 

 stigma, contracted in the middle. The twisted corolla and 

 pulley-shaped stigma are special marks of the Apocynaceous 

 family, to which the Periwinkle belongs. 



The Buckbean,t an aquatic plant, found in bogs and shallow 

 pools, and famous for its tonic properties, comes into flower 

 soon after the Periwinkle, and affords another example of the 



* Vlnca minor — Plate 3 D. 



f MenyantTies trifoliata — Plate 4 A. 



